Oversleep
by TheoremsEverywhere
Summary: Cortana didn't reawaken John to fight the Covenant aboard the Forward Unto Dawn. Instead, the two wake up to a lifeless ship with no power, no communications, and with no idea what's going on. However, they soon discover that they are not alone...
1. Chapter 1

"...You did it."

John-117 slowly drifted through the remains of the _Forward Unto Dawn_. He could see rows of cryopods lined against the wall. His home, until duty called once more.

"Truth, and the Covenant, the Flood...," the voice continued softly.

He reached for the back of his helmet, removing a small datachip from its nest. He plugged it into a small stand, and an image of a holographic woman appeared in front of him.

"It's finished," she whispered to him.

John flicked off the light that his helmet had been emitting. He wouldn't need it for a while.

"It's finished," he repeated, slowly beginning to slip into the cryopod.

"I'll drop a beacon," the woman said. "But it'll be a while before anyone finds us. Years, even."

That didn't matter. He had fulfilled his role; played his part; fought the good fight. Through all the violence and bloodshed, John-117, the Master Chief, had fought for humanity. He had fought against the onslaught of the Covenant and stood side-by-side with his brothers and sisters in arms in defiance of the aliens' genocidal campaign.

"I'll miss you," the woman said quietly.

And a part of him would miss her. However, he knew his duty, and for the time being, his duty had come to an end.

"Wake me, when you need me," he told her as he finished lowering himself into his icy bed. The last thing he saw as the cryopod's lid shut down on him was the woman's smiling face and her confirming nod.

Yes...his duty was over, for now, but he would be reawakened. He just knew it. When a new threat arose, he would rise with it. Whether that threat come in the form of the Covenant, rebels, or something else entirely, he would be ready.

He always would.

~X~

 _"Tell me about the children, Doctor Halsey."_

 _"You already know everything."_

 _"You kidnapped them."_

 _"Children's minds are more easily accepting of indoctrination; their bodies more adaptable to augmentation. The result was the ultimate soldier. And because of our success, when the Covenant invaded, we were ready."_

 _"Doctor Halsey, you're bending history for your own favor and you know it. You developed the Spartans to crush human rebellion, not to fight the Covenant."_

 _"When one human world after another fell, when my Spartans were all that stood between humanity and extinction, nobody was concerned about why they were originally built."_

 _"So you feel, in the end, your choices were justified?"_

 _"My work saved the human race."_

 _"Do you think the Spartans' lack of basic humanity helped?"_

 _"What are you after? The others before you were Naval Intelligence, but you...you're something else."_

 _"Records show Spartans routinely exhibited mildly sociopathic tendencies: difficulty with socialization."_

 _"The records show efficient behavior operating in hazardous situations. I supplied the tools to maintain that efficiency."_

 _"Do you believe the Master Chief succeeded because he was, at his core, broken?_

 _"What does John have to do with this? ...You want to replace him."_

 _"The Master Chief is dead."_

 _"His file reads Missing in Action."_

 _"Catherine? Spartans never die?"_

 _"Your mistake is seeing Spartans as military hardware. My Spartans are humanity's next step. Our destiny as a species. Do not underestimate them. But most of all, do not underestimate him."_

~X~

 _Somewhere in space, unknown date and time..._

"-ohn? John!"

John knew he was awake before he fully opened his eyes. Where a normal man would have needed a minute to collect himself, John was ready to move almost before his body was ready to comply. Instincts momentarily took over, and he abruptly pressed his hands against the glass lid of his cryopod. It took him only another split second to recognize the voice that had awoken him.

"Wake up, Chief," the feminine voice continued. "I need you..."

"Cortana?" he grunted. "What's going on?"

"Take it easy," the AI said gently. "You've been out for a while."

"Where are we?" asked the Spartan, his trained eyes already beginning to scout his surroundings. There was a small stand directly in front of his cryopod. It emitted a blue light, within which stood a young holographic woman with short dark hair; his AI and trusted ally, Cortana.

"I- we're still on the _Forward Unto Dawn_...I think..."

"You 'think'?" he asked. "Why did you wake me?"

"Hang on, let me get your systems back online. Do me a favor and look up. You'll find the manual release to your pod."

The Master Chief glanced up. Sure enough, a lever greeted him. He reached up and pulled it down, prompting the lid to his cryopod to slide open. There was a loud hiss as cooled gas exited the pod, followed by the dull thump of John's boots as he stepped out.

"What's the situation?" he asked, reaching for the MA5D Assault Rifle that had been stored in his pod with him. A quick glance and an experimental flick of the safety switch seemed to hint that the rifle was still in working order. Lucky him. His apparent ammo count, however, was lower than he'd like.

"John..." Cortana began, a concerned look on her face. The expression told him more than words ever could.

"What's wrong?" John asked cautiously.

"I went offline," Cortana explained. "I don't know how long we've been here, and my last recorded dates are all fuzzy. I think someone or something may have tampered with me and began erasing data logs. I have no clue how that happened and no clue how long has passed."

John pressed his lips together. That _was_ bad news. Oversleeping during cryo-stasis could be devastating. "When and how did you reactive then?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. _Something_ must have brought me online, and I woke you up not long after. Given the state of the ship, I believe someone has boarded us and somehow reactivated me."

"The state of the ship?" John questioned.

"Almost everything on this ship is offline," the AI began. "No power, no lights, nothing. Until I woke up, practically everything has been out, with the exception of a few cryopds that managed to stay just barely cold enough to keep someone in cryo-stasis"

John frowned as he began double checking his available equipment. He quickly noted that, besides his rifle and a single M6H pistol, he only had one grenade. "Which means an external source brought you, and _only_ you, online...But why aren't I floating then? Where's the gravity coming from, if the ship's generators are down?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but what remains of the ship may have found its way onto an object large enough to create the gravity. We may be drifting around on little more than a massive rock right now. Or we may have crashed onto a neighboring planet."

"Shouldn't the ship have torn itself apart upon entering the influence of a planet's gravity?" the Chief asked. The broken craft wasn't exactly fit for space travel, last he checked.

"Again, I'm not sure," Cortana said as she glanced around. "Nothing about this makes any sense..."

John shared the sentiments. "What about communications? If we're on a planet, maybe there is a UNSC station nearby?"

"No such luck. The ship has no power for me to use, and I haven't made any headway with your personal comms. Unless there is serious interference, I don't think we're on a UNSC-controlled planet. Otherwise, I would have made radio contact by now. But, if we can restore power to the ship, I may be able to utilize its radio for long range communication."

"Then let's get to work," John said without hesitation as he reached for the stand upon which Cortana stood. "Reestablishing contact with the UNSC is priority number one. We can figure out our next move from there."

"Right," Cortana said as her form disappeared from view. An image of her face momentarily appeared on John's HUD as he plugged her into his suit. With the blue light having faded, John flicked on the lights on his helmet.

"Where to?" John asked as he began a steady run forward.

"Two floors above us."

"Roger," the Spartan replied as he pressed his back against a wall and glanced around the corner, rifle held at the ready. The road was clear. John pressed on. Occasional glaces at the motion sensor on his HUD kept telling him that he was alone, but that didn't deter him from behaving as if he was in hostile territory. Machines could fail, and enemies could lurk in every shadow.

The Chief stopped when he felt a faint tremor throughout the ship. He glanced up and around, only to pause again when another, louder tremor followed up. "Explosions?" he asked.

"Possibly," Cortana mumbled. "Who or whatever managed to reactivate me may have done so remotely. They might be above us now. Keep your eyes peeled Chief, I don't like this..."

"Neither do I," he said as he approached an elevator. Prying the doors open, he glanced inside, pleased to find that the elevator itself wasn't at the door. He glanced up to find that it was suspended high above him. He could see the doors to the first floor above him, but the doors to the second were blocked by the unmoving elevator. At the very least, he could make it to the floor above him without having to try and move the thing.

Grabbing onto the grooves in the wall, the Master Chief began a brisk climb. In less than a minute, he was at the doors. As he began prying them open, he felt another tremor. Closer, this time. When the doors finally slid apart, however, he heard Cortana whistle quietly.

"Wow," she whispered. "I hadn't realized that this ship had deteriorated so badly...how long have we been away?"

She was right. The room looked to be in complete disarray, much more so than the cryo-room. Faded paint lined the walls and chunks of metal lay strung about. Any form of order and neatness had been completely abandoned. "If we really are adrift, watch for areas with unsafe pressure. We might run into flying objects."

"Noted," said the Chief, sparing a glance at his motion sensor yet again. Still no contact.

"Given how much the ship has deteriorated, I'm not sure if the radios will still be functional, even if we do restore power," Cortana continued. "It's worth a try, but...John, we might be stranded out here without UNSC support."

"If the radio fails, we can try finding the source of the tremors," said John. "If it's the Covenant- or anyone, for that matter -trying to blast their way in, they might have working equipment with them."

"Assuming those tremors are, in fact, originating from intelligent life," Cortana added.

"We don't have too many options here."

It wasn't long before John made it to the next floor and reached a generator room. Even here, the only source of light was that of his helmet. "What exactly am I looking for?"

"I won't lie, I had hoped for more than this," Cortana explained. "There's not much to fix here. Take a look to your left. There should be a panel, if I remember correctly. I can try to restart the generator from there." John complied. Sure enough, he noticed a large panel and headed over to it. "I'll need you to physically hook me up," Cortana continued. "I can't access it through the network like I used to. There's no power for that. Pull me out when the power's back on, or when you see my chip flashing."

"Affirmative," said John as he temporarily removed Cortana from his helmet and plugged her into a slot in the panel. A minute passed. Then two. John felt three more tremors during this time. After the fourth minute, John noticed Cortana's chip flashing, but there was still no power.

"No luck?" he asked while pulling her out and plugging her into his helmet.

"Nothing," Cortana breathed. "The ship's power is _completely_ gone. Either someone or something siphoned it or..."

"Or we've been here so long that the power has completely drained," John finished grimly. "Understood. We'll have to see if those tremors lead us to anyone."

"Head to the upper levels of the ship," Cortana said quietly, still contemplating the implications of the lack of power. "The tremors seems to come more from above than from below." John had to agree. The noise from every tremor definitely came from above.

The Spartan began a steady process of marching and climbing. Minutes spent searching for a way to the next level above him were interrupted by short bursts of climbing to said level. All the while, the tremors above were growing louder and more intense. Who or whatever was up there wasn't too away far now.

"Any luck with the comms?" the Chief asked quietly during a climb.

"No," Cortana replied. "I've tried several times on several known frequencies. I don't hear anything. No static, no voices, nothing. It's as if the channels no longer exist. I've been trying to find other channels- _anything_ at this point- but so far, nothing."

No enemy channels might not have been a bad thing, but the complete lack of channels in general left John with a foul feeling. He didn't like this. Some part of him, some sense honed through years of deployment and violent confrontation, told him that this was wrong.

So very wrong.

Eventually, the AI and the Spartan were brought out of their respective tasks of searching for communications and reaching the upper levels by a red blip on John's motion sensor. The Chief instantly froze, his rifle held at the ready, his finger hovering over the trigger. Cortana saw it to, and made absolutely certain to stay quiet and give the Master Chief a moment to concentrate.

The blip indicated that there was at least one presence in front of him. However, when he saw no one ahead, he listened in. The theory he had begun to form was quickly proven true when he heard faint footsteps through the ceiling above him.

Someone was on the next floor.

"Potential contact," John whispered. "Likely above us..."

"There should be a stairway just up ahead," Cortana whispered back. "It'll lead you to the next level...be careful, John."

"Roger," he replied as he moved forward and dimmed the lights on his helmet as much as he could. He found the stairway in no time, and quickly began a brisk, quiet climb. As he saw the last step before the next level, he slowed down, crouched, and peeked over the edge.

The hallways up ahead was just as messy as the previous ones. However, new lights had been hung on the ceiling, and they illuminated the area. Where the lights ended, there stood a green-clad figure. Its body proportions confused John. A pair of relatively thin arms and legs, as well as a slim torso, were accompanied by massive bulk in the back and shoulder areas. The thing was facing away from him, but John could still make out the side of its helmet, as well as the barrel of a strange weapon that it held. Why it didn't watch the unlit areas was anyone's guess, but John knew that he had lucked out with how this hostile was positioned.

It stood nearly as tall as him, though from what he could see, its bulk exceeded his. Whether or not this thing was physically stronger than him remained to be seen. However, he had a feeling that he was faster, given the strange creature's shape and non-aerodynamic armor, but that still left the question:

 _What is that?_

The lights and its position indicated that someone had begun handing lights in order to explore the ship. This thing was likely guarding the area until more light could be brought in.

John shut off his helmet lights and tentatively crept forward. His plan was to subdue the hostile and gather intel. If possible, he was open to avoid killing it, but otherwise, this thing was as good as dead if it didn't comply.

The Chief's footsteps made no noise as he moved in the for the strike, and as he did so, he could hear the hostile's heavy breathing. It looked turned lazily from side to side, surveying the broken and otherwise abandoned room it had chosen to patrol. Little did it know of the super soldier behind it.

When John was finally close enough, he leapt into action. In a split second, he had grabbed the enemy unit and forced it to turn around. What met him was a spherical helmet with two golden lights in place of eyes. A face plate covered the hostile's features entirely, but it wasn't enough to protect the strange soldier from John's first strike. He brought his fist down on top of the helmet, not enough to kill the enemy, but more than enough to disorient it. The hostile let out a confused grunt, dropping the firearm it has been holding and momentarily slumped in John's arms. Immediately, the Chief forced his adversary to the ground pressed the barrel of his gun to the creature's forehead while using his knees to pin down its arms.

"Make a sound and you're dead," he told it. He wasn't sure if the being understood him, but he knew it likely understood the meaning of the gun pressed against its head. Several seconds of silence passed as the alien stared up at him. If it weren't for the thing's heaving breath- indicating that it was surprised- John would have thought that he had knocked it out. He was about to try something else, but...

But then everything went wrong.

"TENNO!"

In a voice that sounded like a strange mix of a Grunt's high-pitched cries and a Brute's guttural snarls, the thing roared out an unfamiliar word. John immediately bashed its head again, hard enough to knock it out, in hopes that his refraining from shooting would conceal his stealth just a bit longer. However, the damage was already done.

From somewhere up ahead, John heard the shouts and screams of more troops. They were the same strange union of high-pitched screams and low, distorted growls. As multiple red blips appeared on John's motion sensor, he brought his rifle to bear, pointing the barrel towards the source of the noise. The voices continued, now drawing nearer, and the Chief could hear the sound of dozens of pairs of feet running through the halls of the _Forward Unto Dawn._

He didn't understand anything the voices screamed, but one thing he knew for sure:

They were coming for him.

~X~

 _"Tenno, the messages we've intercepted indicate that the Grineer have found something deep within the caverns of Mars. They have set up a mining operation to try and dig it out."_

 _"What exactly did they find?"_

 _"The messages don't make mention of it. I only know that they believe it to be an ancient artifact."_

 _"Aha...and knowing the Grineer, it's probably better for everyone if they don't have this artifact."_

 _"I need you to go down there and sabotage the mining operation. Then, head into the caves below to secure what it is the Grinner think they have found. Good luck, Tenno."_

* * *

 **A/N:** I was under a relentless siege of plot bunnies and this little fic is the result of my defeat at their hands. The pacing is quick and the action comes fast, but this is essentially a reworked opening of Halo 3's ending and 4's first few minutes, with the first lines of dialogue taken directly from the games, but with the obvious twists. Really, I always felt that the entire awakening from cryo-stasis theme started up quickly. Nevertheless, I hope you have all enjoyed this prologue of sorts, and depending on whether anyone's interested, more chapters may very well arise. Otherwise, it's just a novice's first story and an attempt at beginning to grow on this site.

As a **disclaimer** ** _,_** I do not own either franchise associated with this story. Warframe and Halo each belong to their respective owners. This story is made entirely for entertainment.


	2. Chapter 2

Review responses and A/N at the bottom.

* * *

 _"_ _General Ruk! We're under attack from two fronts! Something inside the ship has awoken and is forcing its way out, and a Tenno is rampaging on the surface!"_

 _"_ _Then...divide your...forces! Burn...the...Tenno, but...capture the beast...on the ship!"_

~X~

John's mind raced as he backpedaled into the shadows of the unlit portions of the ship. His hand shot out to grab the strange weapon from his fallen foe, only to immediately recoil when the weapon violently detonated on contact. The Master Chief's eyes snapped to his HUD's shield display, where he watched a tiny fraction of his shield fade from the explosion.

 _The weapons are booby trapped…_

The damage to his shielding was minimal, and it was already beginning to recharge, but if all the aliens' weapons were like this, then he would have a hard time restocking. John immediately snapped back to attention after his failed attempt at acquiring more firepower, and retreated into the safety of the shadows, immediately ducking behind cover.

The clamor of footsteps and shouting voices from up front had grown into a thundering chorus by now, and the Master Chief knew he had very little time to plan.

Retreating back into the depths of the ship could be suicide. The red blips on his sensor kept increasing in number. If he sneaked back into the areas of the ship that the enemy hadn't begun lighting yet, he might have the home field advantage, but he would very quickly be surrounded and choked out. Without working equipment, falling back would be a death trap.

The only way out would be through the use of whatever ship he could hijack from the aliens, which meant he'd have to fight through them.

John leveled his rifle as the end of the hallway. Shadows were becoming visible along the wall. The first of the enemy soldiers that came rushing into his field of view looked identical to the other one. Green armor covered a body of strange proportions, and empty yellow lights stared out from an expressionless face plate.

John's trigger finger itched, but didn't move. He still had a semblance of an element of surprise. The aliens hadn't noticed him yet. Despite the enemy closing in, John remained still, watching with mild confusion as the soldiers completely ignored their fallen comrade. His attention was drawn, however, to another alien that had run into the hallway.

It stood taller than its green-clad counterpart. It was bulkier too, with thicker arms, shoulders, back, and legs. Its armor was a dull orange, and the weapon it held in its hands reminded John of a shotgun.

As more aliens filed neatly into line, they began to bottleneck. They searched for him, and several shined lights into the darkness, mumbling something in their incoherent language of screams and grunts. Finally, sensing the time was right, John acted.

Blasting from out of the shadows, the Spartan aimed a kick at the nearest alien- another of the green-clad smaller ones. It turned around just in time to notice the armored boot that connected painfully with its head. The alien dropped from the impact, and John began to fire a few rounds into the cramped crowd of hostiles.

His aim was true, and the bullets found their mark in the heads of a few more aliens. Several of them dropped to the floor, and by then, the group was finally reacting. Automatic weapons' fire filled John's ears as the aliens began recklessly shooting at him. John immediately dove to the side and began a deadly combination of weaving between the aliens and delivering killing blows.

He kept his use of bullets to a minimum, and focused on close quarters combat. The use of the aliens as shields against their own weapons' fire was effective, but John could see stray bullets bouncing off and draining his shield every once in a while.

The strange creatures' aim was a crime against army discipline. It wasn't that they fired inaccurately; no, they simply fired with no regard for safety. They were in a cramped corridor with their own allies surrounding them. Firing as they did was more than likely to cause injury to their own ranks. He had tried to dismiss it as blind panic on the aliens' part, but quickly realized that these things didn't fear him. Their distorted voices, shouting in a language he didn't understand, still held a tone that communicated rage and war, not fear and cowardice.

John noticed more than once that bullets from the aliens' weapons would ricochet off walls and occasionally strike the green-clad soldiers themselves. They either didn't notice or didn't care; their drive to destroy him was unreal.

He also noticed that the aliens' actions had proven suicidal twice now; once with the soldier who had alerted his comrades while under the threat of death, and the second time when they began bullet hosing him in a tiny packed room full of their own soldiers.

He didn't let this distract him from his goal, however. With each step he took, John was making progress. He moved through the battlefield with a deadly combination of calculated Spartan fluidity and strength. He broke through enemy ranks, stopping his foes dead in their tracks- very often literally- through crushing blows to the head and the occasional fired shots.

He wasn't ignorant to the fact, however, that his shield was steadily draining. What the enemy lacked in proper aim, they made up for in the sheer number of bullets flying through the air. John's advancement through the ship finally faltered when he noticed a strange sight.

Up ahead, the ship's walls ended in jagged tears where the vessel had been ripped apart during its time in space. Beyond those walls, however, was what had stopped the Chief. There was red stone everywhere, jagged and torn as though dug through.

"We must be on asteroid or planet of sorts!" Cortana shouted over the sound of gunfire and fighting. "This is where the gravity has been coming from!"

John grunted in acknowledgment while batting a weapon out of an alien's hands. The contact triggered whatever fail safe the weapon had installed and the device exploded in his foe's hands. The creature shouted something that he didn't understand and took a swing at him, which he attempted to block. The Spartan blinked in surprise when the alien's fist crashed against his arm. Its technique was slow, sloppy, and unpracticed, but that thing was _strong_. Before the enemy soldier could continue its assault, John firmly bash his head against the creature's helmet. It let out a confused and pained groan before John shoved it away and moved on.

He made a mental note that, despite the clumsiness and slowness of these aliens, they still packed a punch when they connected.

As he sprinted out of the ship and into the cave, John caught a break. Without the narrow halls of the ship, he could maneuver more freely. His escape became less dependent on his ability to force his way through a crowd, and more about his dash through the maze that was this cave. The endless waves of hostiles, however, didn't stop. Even with the added space, the Master Chief often found himself forced into a repetitive cycle of crashing through opponents with timed strikes and superior strength.

Eventually, however, that cycle came to a stop.

John found himself skidding to a stop when something rounded the corner up ahead.

"Hooo boy," Cortana mumbled. " _That's_ gonna be a problem."

A hulking creature marched into his view. It twitched and trembled awkwardly, its hands and helmeted head shaking regularly. The new enemy utterly dwarfed everything else he had seen since waking up. It towered over the other aliens by a mile. Its black armor, which gave off an unnatural, eerie orange glow, likely added bulk to its already massive frame. A dome of semitransparent glass material covered its head, and John could see a strange, viscous fog pressing against the interior of the helmet.

The Master Chief had only taken a moment to analyze his new opponent. The gunfire from the other aliens refused to let up, but he was already moving again. The titan of an alien ahead of him began stalking towards him, raising a heavy weapon in his direction. It fired several blasts of a black, bubbling chemical that John failed to recognize.

He made sure to avoid the blasts.

When one landed somewhere on the floor beside him, he noticed a thick, noxious gas emanating from the pile. Immediately, warning sensors blared on John's HUD.

"John! Whatever gas that stuff gives off is corroding your armor!" Cortana frantically warned him. "It's bypassing your shields!"

A pang of alarm shot through the Spartan, and he rapidly put distance between himself and the gas. The towering alien that had fired the blasts at him continued to do so, now being joined by more and more of its smaller counterparts.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the aliens were coming from the direction which the gax soldier was blocking. That meant that, whatever entrances they had, at least one of them was confirmed to be somewhere behind the titan. John realized he had to fight this thing if he wanted to find that opening in the cave.

Peeking over his cover and raising his rifle, he fired several quick, pinpoint-accurate bursts at the alien. His eyes widened slightly when the thing waded straight into his line of fire, not even flinching as the bullets sank harmlessly into its armor.

The Master Chief immediately refocused. He had fought enemies capable of withstanding conventional weapons before, in the form of Hunters and the like. His gaze drifted towards the glass-like dome covering the alien's head. After a split-second decision, John fired a burst at the helmet.

He could see the creature attempt some sort of strange maneuver by spreading its arms to the side, but it was too late. The bullets hit the glass, and it shattered, causing the alien to stumble back. Thick, dark green gas spilled from within the helmet like a mushroom cloud, enveloping the toxic gas soldier.

"Brilliant," Cortana muttered as John's cover was blasted through by gunfire, forcing the super soldier to dive behind a different stone. "The quickest way to expose that thing's weakness also forces people to deal with the gas cloud."

"Only if they're in melee range," John added absentmindedly while quickly reloading his gun. A second later, he watched as another batch of black chemicals sailed over his cover and splattered on the ground in front of him. He immediately moved again, forced away from the corrosive gas.

He quickly peeked around a pillar of red rock, leveling his rifle with the head of the gas soldier. However, he hesitated when he saw the creature with more clarity.

It had a face that could give Elites nightmares.

Decaying, swollen flesh covered its seemingly hairless head. Its eyelids were peeled wide open, revealing blank white orbs that stared on unblinkingly. Its lips were missing, revealing a mouth that looked like it was locked in a perpetual, horrific grin.

But worst of all was the fact that, despite its obvious sickness, the decaying flesh, and the horrid _eyes..._ the face- its structure, its shape- looked terrifyingly similar to that of a human.

"What the…?" Cortana breathed.

John's lapse in concentration was enough to give the beast time to react. Before he could fire a shot, the titan spread its arms out to the sides. When John's finger pressed against the trigger, a crystalline white dome appeared around the alien, encompassing both it and several soldiers. The Spartan blinked when his bullets bounced harmlessly off the strange shield.

 _What is that?_

Before he could properly analyze the new shield, John was forced to twist out of the way when, by defiance of logic, the aliens began shooting from within the icy dome, right after his own bullets had failed to penetrate.

John relocated quickly, springing up from a new position to fire at the enemy. Despite their continuous shooting through the ice shield, John's MA5D simply couldn't penetrate it. He wondered if the weapons the aliens used were simply better than his, or if their bullets were constructed from a special material that could pass through the shield.

Either way, he was only wasting ammo when he shot that thing. As the Chief ducked back down, his eyes drifted to the grenade on his belt, his hand already hovering over the explosive. Deciding quickly, he detached the grenade and primed it. He quickly moved out of cover just long enough to set up a shot at the towering alien and its ice shield. He lobbed the grenade a split second later, dropping back down as his shield began draining from enemy gunfire. The last thing he saw before he dove into his cover was the grenade bouncing, and rolling right up to the edge of the alien's shield.

"John, you've got more of them coming up from behind!" Cortana shouted.

The Master Chief spared a glance over his shoulder, noticing the soldiers that had begun to flank him. Several of them paused, however, and looked past him when an explosion sounded through the area, accompanied by the sound of shattering ice.

 _Now._

John leapt over his cover and sprinted towards his enemy. The alien's ice shield had been broken, and the titan stood exposed. The Spartan set his sights on the creature's head, still obscured by clouds of gas, and began firing. He heard the beast roar in pain, but to his slight dismay, it refused to die. It reeled back from the impact and stumbled over the body of one of the other soldiers who had been killed by John's grenade.

The Chief didn't let up. He fired in controlled bursts as he closed the distance, stopping only to reload one clip. His intention was to get around the monster. Wasting ammo and time on trying to kill this thing put him at risk; distracting and outmaneuvering it was key.

Except the alien stopped backing up. Despite multiple bullet wounds to the head, it hadn't fallen yet. Instead, it regained its bearings with alarming speed and straightened out, the shadow of its head turning to face John from within the ever present cloud of gas.

Then, in a show of inhuman strength and resilience, the beast _charged_.

Ignoring the bullet wounds to its head, the destruction of its shield, and the death of the soldiers around it, the titanic monster simply moved forward in a demented speed walk, it's body jerking in random manners as it closed the distance.

The Spartan reacted just in time to dive to the side, narrowly avoiding the stomping alien. The second his foot touched the ground, John bolted, making use of the opportunity to pass his opponent. It quickly whirled around. however, firing several blasts of its chemical concoction at John. But by then, he was already on the move.

He could hear the twisted roar from behind him as he sprinted forward.

"John," Cortana whispered as the super soldier ran. "What _was_ that thing? And its face! Why did it- why did it look like...like a..."

"I don't know," John answered. He could hear more reinforcements up ahead.

The situation was going fubar faster than he would have liked. His ammo was being depleted, the aliens' weaponry was not salvageable, and the Master Chief had just witnessed firsthand that these creatures could get large enough to give Brutes a run for their money. If more elite units showed up, John knew the fight would get infinitely more difficult.

More of the green-clad soldiers came into view. The larger ones with shotguns were present among the group as well. A steady stream of inaccurate weapons' fire pooled into John's direction. He dodged and weaved, diving into and out of cover. Each movement brought him closer to the group of hostiles, and before they knew what hit them, he had broken into their ranks.

The Spartan powered through like a freight train. The soldiers, too large and bulky, simply couldn't keep up with John's speed. He lashed out with precision and power, his armored fists making short work of the enemy's helmets.

After finishing off one of the larger shotgun-wielding aliens, John noticed something from the corner of his eye. The cave narrowed into what reminded him of a hallway. Imbedded in the red stone at the end of said hallway was a circular metal door. A single yellow light shined from the door's center, and a small console stood on the left side of it.

As John shoulder bashed an alien against a nearby wall, he made a silent decision that getting through this door would be his next objective. He doubted the aliens would build doors too far away from the mouth of the cave. If he was lucky, he may have just found the path that lead to the surface.

The final hostile in the group fell dead at John's feet, but the Master Chief could still hear the wild cries of more aliens. He didn't have much time here. However, as he approached the door, it refused to open for him. Expecting this, the Chief turned to the console.

"Cortana," he began. "Is there any way for you to hack the door?"

"I can't located the network these aliens are using," his AI partner quickly replied. "We'll need to find a way to hook me up to this thing."

The Spartan pursed his lips. He quickly began searching for something- _anything_ \- that he could use to connect Cortana to the console. But the alien's technology was too different. He couldn't see anything that he could use to upload Cortana.

"Do you see any port I can fit you in?" John asked hurriedly. "This technology has a completely different form factor than anything I've ever seen."

"Nothing," Cortana whispered. "It's completely alien..."

Grunting and turning to the door, John forced his fingers into the crevice running along the door's center. With all his might, the Master Chief pulled. The metal groaned in protest, but stayed put. John momentarily shut his eyes in effort, pushing with renewed vigor as he attempted to open his escape rout.

His efforts were interrupted, however, by a thunderous roar from behind him. John whirled around, his eyes narrowing when a familiar hulking shape came into view outside the hallway. The gas soldier from earlier laid its gaze on John, its nightmarish face contorting in an expression whose meaning became all the more difficult to discern because of its mangled features.

John heard Cortana mumble something frantically as she examined the console. Meanwhile, the titanic alien let out a rumbling, echoing laugh as it charged forward. The Master Chief knew that he wouldn't survive long in the hallway with the alien's gas, so he did the last thing the hostile was expecting.

He charged right back at it.

To its credit, the beast didn't falter. As John came into melee range, it swung its weapon, aiming to clip John with the butt of its chemical rifle. The super soldier perceived the motion faster than the alien could deliver, however, and jerked out of the way. The alarms on his HUD came to life again as the gas from the alien ignored his shields and began slowly eating away at his armor.

Acting quickly, the Chief jumped up, delivering a powerful uppercut to the beast's head. A dull thud sounded through the cave as John's fist met something resilient. The flesh of the alien's face was crushed under the weight of John's punch, but the thing remained standing.

Its bones must have been reinforced. This creature must have had some sort of cybernetics installed to make its bones- or perhaps just its skull- incredibly resilient. That, or it was biologically altered.

 _Or maybe this is natural for them..._

A second follow-up punch disoriented the alien further. John surged forward, using his weight to body slam the larger alien further back. The titan only barely stumbled back, nearly unfazed by the half-ton of Spartan that had just crashed into it. John was forced to duck under a retaliating strike aimed at this helmet, but as he did so, he suddenly became aware of another red blip on his radar. However, the blip told him the enemy was behind him, just far enough away to be on the other side of the door. His calculating mind instantly realized the value of the enemy on the opposite end of the door.

The Chief delivered one final kick to the massive alien's head before dropping to the ground and sweeping its legs out from under. It tumbled with a loud grunt, while John whirled around to face the door. He heard a voice on the other side, and it was definitely female. Strangely enough, it was neither as high pitched as some of the male's screams, nor as low as some of the other screams.

The door swung open with an abruptness that surprised John. The thing that stepped through the door, however, surprised him a little more. It was another massive alien. Tall and lanky, this one had white armor with green blotches, as well as a heavy weapon in its long arms. An expressionless face plate stared down at him, golden orbs gleaming with artificial light.

John made no attempt to fight the creature. Instead, he dashed forward, intent on bypassing it.

But, in the split second it took John to reach the alien, it had managed to raise a fist into the air. The Spartan's gaze was drawn to the strange gesture, right before the alien brought down said fist. It slammed into the ground, and John found himself literally thrown off his feet. A shock wave blasted out from the alien, momentarily knocking the Chief back.

He landed on his back, but jumped to his feet fast enough that he may as well have landed on them. The alien in front of him pointed its heavy weapon at him.

Before the female could fire at him, John heard a low growl from behind him. He was forced to move. He jerked to the side, narrowly avoiding the butt of the chemical weapon the gas soldier had swung at him. He retaliated, lurching forward with inhuman speed and balling his hand into a fist. His armored gauntlet swung around to deal with the enemy soldier, but, to his dismay, John suddenly found his fist trapped inside of the palm of the massive alien's hand.

With wild and brutish strength, the beast swung John around, slamming him into the ground. He grunted as a portion of his shield dropped. John's eyes then proceeded to widen when the alien lifted its foot with frightening speed. Before the Spartan could move, his adversary brought its leg crashing down on John. The super soldier gasped as his shielding plummeted, the impact jarring him.

"John!" Cortana cried in alarm as the alien lifted its foot again. This time, the Spartan managed to roll out of the way before he could be crushed again. He scrambled out from under the beast, rolling away a second time as it tried to crush him again. It powered through with its assault, abandoning its plan of crushing John in favor of a violent kick to his side. The soldier was lifted clean off the ground by the impact, crashing against the wall of the cave.

His shield was dropping dangerously low, and the tall female alien was beginning to spool up its weapon. John force himself off the ground, ignoring the dull pain in this muscles. He danced out of the way of another heavy hit from the gas soldier, instead opting towards the slender female. It raised its fist once more when it saw the Master Chief charging it, but this time, John was ready. He leapt at her, using his mass to throw her off balance as he tackled the alien. Tall and heavy as she was, she simply lacked the bulk to keep herself upright after being rammed by half a ton of Spartan.

The two tumbled to the ground, John raising his own fists before bringing them down on the female's head. She let out a pained grunt from the impact. The Master Chief leapt off immediately, just in time to avoid twin blasts of boiling chemicals from the gas soldier. The projectiles landed on the female alien instead.

John paid no attention to how she reacted. Instead, he whirled around, and, with unmatched fluidity, grabbed his rifle with one hand and his pistol with the other. He spread his arms out to the sides, the barrel of his rifle leveled with the head of the gas soldier and his pistol leveled with the head of the female alien.

He pulled the triggers of his weapons simultaneously. A stream of bullets exited the rifle while a single round fired from the pistol. The gas soldier received a face full of ballistics fire while the tall female was treated to a single bullet to the head. The female stopped her struggling while the titanic alien fell to the ground with a loud, distorted scream. John didn't bother checking whether or not they were dead. Instead, he bolted, jumping over the fallen body of the female as he charged up an incline.

He could see light streaming into the cave from atop the incline. The super soldier's haste increased as he pumped his legs faster. The sooner he was out of the alien-infested cave, the better.

He heard violent shouts from up ahead; more of the alien's war cries. Their distorted voices filled his ears as he rapidly approached the opening to the cave, but something else caught his attention.

Gunfire. The aliens outside the cave were shooting at something. John's eyes narrowed as he continued his run up the incline. What would the aliens be shooting, if not him?

The soldier gave a slight shake of his head. No matter what the aliens were shooting, he couldn't stay in the cave. He'd be choked out soon due to his diminishing supply of ammo, and the aliens' trapped weapons made resupplying impossible out here.

The mouth of the cave was visible now. Warm, golden light flooded his vision, and John shot out of the cave. His visor polarized, immediately accounting for the sudden increase in light. A red, desert-like clearing greeted him. Machines of various shades of green and brown peppered the landscape. He could see mounted turrets and skyward-facing cannons. Platforms and makeshift sniper towers peeked over the multitude of orange-red rocks that lay strewn about. A single sun burned in the sky, its light gleaming off the reflective surfaces of the machines.

The architecture, the layout- everything felt alien to John. But what drew his attention most was the center of the clearing. Several bodies covered in brown, sandy armor lied on the ground. A quick inspection revealed that more bodies were slumped against rocks and various machines.

Two red blips on his radar indicated a presence. At the clearing's center stood two aliens. One reminded him of the creatures in the cave. A bulky back and shoulders accompanied a slender form. The alien's armor was a dusty brown, and his face plate revealed a pair red lights in place of the usual yellow. It was slumped on its knees, kneeling before a second alien.

This one had to be a different species. It stood slightly shorter than the aliens John had seen so far, and its armor looked completely different. The body was a series of blacks and whites, covered with the occasional gold accent. Strange metallic, golden cage-like structures hung on the creature's head and shoulders. The back of its head looked almost like a crest, while the front narrowed down into a single, forward-facing horn. Two sets of red, glowing eyes glared down at the kneeling alien.

John watched as the black and white alien placed its foot on the kneeling creature. With a jerk, it yanked out a bloodied blade while the brown-clad soldier fell limp. A single blip disappeared, leaving only one remaining.

And then the creature turned to him.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hooo boy. That took a while. I did not think this update would come out so late. Sorry to everyone who has been waiting for Chapter 2; work and school typically keep me busy, and I have been doing a little research in order to start another crossover I plan to work on. I plan on (hopefully) putting many stories on this site, so the next thing I post might actually be the first chapter to another crossover. Still, I plan on eventually getting Chapter 3 of this story out to you all, so I ask for your patience. That said, review responses are below.

 **Review Responses –** I read all reviews, but I respond to those that seem like they are asking a legitimate question or bring up something that I'd like to address. If you stopped by and said something like 'good work' or 'good story', then know that, even if I don't directly respond to you below, you have my thanks!

 **DeadlyRecon:** Well, it's not universe hopping, I'll tell you that much.

 **Exanime Draco:** Well, novice author. I've written lots of non-story works before, but I'm new to writing narrative. Chapters may increase in length at some point. I'm not sure if John can really 'wear' a Warframe, given that it doesn't make much sense lore-wise, and it would feel a bit overpowered.

 **razer666L:** Interesting. I looked up weight values for the Grineer, but they seem to be hypothetical. I couldn't find anything on the Warframe wiki about Grineer weight, but I imagine they'll be fairly heavy. Still, I'd argue that a Spartan, weighing in at half a ton, would be enough to knock them back if he crashed into one. I do agree, though, that Grineer likely have an advantage over Spartans when it comes to weapons. I'm not so sure about their physical strength though.

 **Anzer'ke:** I don't blame you for pointing that line out. The inspiration for it came from in-game lines such as "Why does it have to be ravenous?" and "You'd think they clone something a little less...ugly.", where the tone was somewhat casual and dry. Still, I don't plan on turning this Tenno into a comedian. John attacked the Lancer after his radar identified it as a hostile, and with the intent of gathering information, not killing it. I didn't have the Lancer fight back much because it was surprised at the sudden outcome. When it tried to fight back after regaining its bearings, John knocked it out. And, I won't lie, I share your fascination with John's interaction with the Warframe setting.

 **formerlyarandomreviewer:** That's a secret. Good observation on the value of the _Forward Unto Dawn_ in the Warframe universe.

 **Just a follower:** Sorry to keep you waiting!

 _Edits made on 12/13/17 to help clarify certain descriptions of the Grineer._


	3. Chapter 3

" _Sir, I've received reports that the beast from the ship has made it past the preliminary defenses. It's on a direct course for the Tenno..."_

 _"Do not...let them…escape. That beast...holds the...secrets...to my artifact. I want him...alive. Mobilize...all...forces."_

 _"Yes sir."_

~X~

Tenno Aras stared at the strange armored creature in total silence. His sword, Broken War, bathed red by the dead Grineer at his feet, was pointed downwards, but he was confident he could raise it in time to block whatever the large being could fire at him.

The armored thing had a weapon pointed at him. It was a strange gray rifle whose design felt as alien as the armor its owner wore. A small pistol hung at its waist. Despite it being obviously armed and prepared for combat, the stranger made no move to attack him. The Tenno watched, the Volt Prime Warframe's artificial muscles tensing and relaxing in a rhythmic pattern.

"What is that?" the Lotus asked, directing the question almost at herself. "It doesn't match any known Grineer units."

From within the Orbiter, the Operator, the _Tenno_ , watched with an unusual feeling predominating his mind. It was an uncommon occurrence for the Lotus to fail to recognize something. It was also uncommon for a Tenno to fail to recognize something as either an ally or an enemy. This thing wasn't attacking him, but it certainly looked ready to.

Was this a friend or was it a foe?

As he asked this, Aras was switching the Warframe's built-in HUD to a scanner setting. With his Helios Sentinel dead, shot down by a stray rocket from a Grineer Hellion, he quickly scanned the unknown creature into his codex.

While he did this, the corpse of the Grineer began to expire. Aras noted as the unnamed stranger snapped to attention, rifle brought to bear as the dead body evaporated into a glowing cloud.

 _Why's it so surprised? Body-disintigrating technology is used by Grineer and Corpus alike_ , the Tenno thought.

"Lotus? What do we do?" he began slowly, careful as to not allow his voice to flow through the Warframe to ensure the stranger didn't hear him.

"Hmm," the Lotus mumbled over the communication device housed in the Warframe. "An unknown soldier crawling out of a Grineer dig site...it's very possible that _he_ was the 'artifact' the Grineer were searching for. Standby for just a moment, I'm attempting to initiate radio contact with this stranger."

Aras nodded within the Orbiter. Very, _very_ few people had ever really heard a Tenno speak. It was practically a custom at this point- not speaking to strangers, that is. When it came to communication, the Tenno often found themselves taking a backseat while either the Lotus or Ordis maintained the conversation.

"Strange," the Lotus mused. "Nothing seems to work. I can't find the frequency of the equipment. There's no signal whatsoever."

Aras frowned but remained silent. Meanwhile, the armored individual kept his gun trained on the Tenno, who was forced to stand still and watch. As a show of peace, Aras decided to sheathe his blade. As he lifted the weapon, the unidentified warrior tensed further, even after Aras magnetically clipped the blade to his back with a soft _click_.

The stranger eventually relaxed slightly. The release of tension from his muscles went almost unnoticed by Aras. Despite this reaction, it still came as a point of surprise to the Tenno when a mature, gravely voice echoed from the armored warrior.

" _Kan yoo undur staand mee?_ "

Aras blinked. What?

The Tenno cocked his head to the side, his Warframe mirroring the action as if to reinforce the motion of confusion.

The armored man- for that voice could only belong to a man- grunted something. " _Fig yurs,_ " the Tenno heard him mumble. The frustration in the second statement was almost unnoticeable, but the first thing the man had said, which Aras was sure had been posed as a question, definitely held an undertone of suspicion and unease.

"How...strange," the Lotus mumbled, rejoining the conversation. "I just looked over every known frequency used by modern communications, as well as obsolete frequencies. This thing uses none of them."

Perhaps this stranger didn't make use of electric communications at all? Although, the idea of walking about without long-ranged comms seemed ridiculous to Aras.

 _Still, ridiculous or not, if he's what the Grineer are searching for, he needs to be kept out of their hands._

"Lotus," the Tenno said from within the Orbiter. "I'm bringing him to extraction. Once he's out of Grineer reach, I'll stop the mining."

"Then hurry, Tenno. My scanners are picking up increased Grineer radio chatter and biosignatures approaching your location. Marines are inbound."

No sooner had she said that than the sound of Grineer foot soldiers echoed from the mouth of the cave. The thundering of footsteps and shouts of diseased men filled Aras' ears as the soldiers approached. The armored man had taken notice as well, and he swung around with speed that outdid some of the inexperienced Tenno. Aras himself looked past the strange warrior to the cave, pressing his lips together when the first of the Grineer, a Lancer, stormed out and into the open. It was instantly shot down by the armored man, courtesy of a quick, three round burst from the strange rifle. At the same time, Aras raised the arm of his Volt Prime, red electricity dancing at his fingertips. A split second later, a blast of lightning crackled through the dry air, striking the next Lancer who had shown himself.

The Grineer let out a shout and convulsed violently. Aras could see the lightning spring down the cave, hitting whatever other Grineer stood behind the first lancer.

The armored warrior, meanwhile, jerked around again, staring at the Tenno.

 _Never seen someone shoot lightning out of his hands?_ Aras thought, the ghost of a smile touching his lips.

With the Grinner temporarily stunned by the electricity, Aras motioned for the man to follow him. His plan was to get to a safer area and allow the Lotus to initiate proper contact with the armored warrior. Then they could figure out what to do with him.

Aras immediately painted the armored stranger on his HUD with an objective marker. With his Helios gone, the motion sensor it had built into it was also gone. When it came to signatures being marked on his map, he was essentially blind. Manuel markers were the only way to keep track of individuals right now.

And it was with this marker active on his HUD that the Tenno knew his new 'companion' began following him, albeit after a moment of hesitation. Aras glanced at the objective on his HUD- the one that pointed to his original mission. He threw a look over his shoulder to see the top of an imposing Grineer structure; his original objective.

The Lotus quickly marked a second point on his HUD. It would be the location where the Tenno's ship would touch down for him to load his newfound cargo. Then, after he escorted the strange warrior, he could resume his mission.

And get back to the real fight.

~X~

The moment the thing had turned to him, John had his weapon trained on it. The twin sets of red, synthetic orbs bore into him, but John held his ground. A deep-seeded instinct in him, one that couldn't quite be explained with logic or words, warned him of one thing:

This creature was _dangerous_.

With his attention no longer divided between the alien and its most recent victim, John had a moment to fully study it. He could see the stock of a weapon peeking over the creature's shoulder, and some sort of ethereal red flap swung just behind it, visible only after the small gust of wind that disturbed it.

A bulbous, white and brown pistol hung at the alien's hip. It reminded him vaguely of Covenant warships, only in sidearm form. The most prominent weapon, however, was the sword it held in its right hand.

The weapon looked as alien as its owner. The hilt was white and oddly grooved and organic-looking- again, much like the thing that wielded the weapon. Red, almost artistic patterns crisscrossed over the hilt and up along the side of the sword. The length of the blade had one dull side, which sported the same red and white design of the hilt, while the other side was a thin blue cutting edge of energy. It reminded him of Elites' energy swords.

Silence reigned for several seconds. John was about to address Cortana, but the corpse of the recently-deceased alien suddenly began to, for lack of a better word, _disappear_. John swung his rifle at the odd phenomenon, only to watch in bewilderment as the corpse vanished into a cloud of glistening blue-white.

Had all the corpses been doing that? He hadn't paid attention to any of the dead bodies of the aliens back in the caves or on the _Forward Unto Dawn_.

 _This just keeps getting weirder…_

John's attention was drawn back to the alien- not that it had ever truly left the potential hostile- when the creature lifted its sword. The Spartan tensed, but paused when the alien hung the sword on its back.

"Chief," Cortana said quietly. "This could be a potential ally. Try talking to it, see if it might understand you."

John hesitated for several seconds before slowly relaxing his muscles. "Can you understand me?" he asked slowly. The alien cocked its head to the side, but gave no other reply. Several seconds passed. John silently sighed. "Figures."

"Maybe we- "

Whatever Cortana was going to say was interrupted by a series of familiar, violent shouts. John whirled around to face the mouth of the cave he had exited. The thunder of footsteps echoed from within, and the Master Chief tensed as the aliens approached.

A green-clad soldier was the first to come into view. Identical to the others that the Spartan had seen, this alien was bulky and slim all at once. John shot the enemy with a three-round burst from his rifle. He was a fraction of a second away from putting three new holes in the head of the next alien that had appeared when a bolt of red lightning flashed past his head. It struck the first alien that had appeared with a sharp _crack_. The soldier let out a shout and convulsed, his body held in place by the seizing of his muscles. The red electricity snapped down the cave, chaining to whatever aliens had been behind the first.

John whirled around, his gaze landing and fixing upon the unnamed warrior. The alien had his palm raised up and outstretched, remnants of lightning clicking between its fingers. The alien motioned for the Chief to follow it with a wave of its hand and turned around.

"...Okay," Cortana mumbled slowly. "An alien that shoots lightning."

The Spartan spared a single glance back at the cave. The convulsing of the first soldier had slowly begun to yield, and John didn't want to be around to face the rest of the aliens with his dwindling ammo count. Making a split second decision, he bolted after the strange creature.

Its sprint was fast, but John was faster. He was rapidly gaining ground on it, and, when it looked back, it noticed this fact.

Then, like some sort of demented frog, the alien _leapt_. It didn't jump, it didn't hop, it simply _leapt_. With a powerful pump of its legs, the creature was sailing through the air. It planted its foot on a high ledge and forced itself further forward, rolling as it hit the ground before repeating the process.

The craziest part was that it performed this action with such perfect movements that the Master Chief honestly found himself at a loss for words. Suddenly, the alien was moving twice as fast, now that its sprinting had been replaced with this wild form of parkour.

"How can _anything_ be that acrobatic?" Cortana asked after a moment of flabbergasted staring. "Are its limbs even supposed to bend that way?"

John had to agree. The speed and coordination required to move like this, especially over a rocky, sandy terrain, was intense. The fact that this alien was keeping pace perfectly with the Chief's sprinting made it all the more impressive.

And all the more dangerous.

The Spartan didn't trust this alien. Everything about this situation- the unknown soldiers, the horrid human _thing_ he had fought earlier- it all felt wrong.

But this alien? This armored, black and white, cold and gold creature? It alarmed him. Its movements were outrageously fast and coordinated. It's body, a techno-organic amalgamation, looked advanced. Sufficiently so that the Master Chief had a gut feeling that its weapons would certainly give his own a run for their money. Still, at the very least, he wasn't unaccustomed to fighting technologically superior enemies.

Except those enemies usually couldn't move like _this_.

John sprinted and watched as the alien slid over patches of dry, rocky ground like it was melted butter. Its body displayed unnaturally low friction, right before the creature pounced back into the air. The Master Chief kept pace with the strange alien, which regularly glanced over its shoulder at him to ensure he hadn't fallen behind.

"I've just finished suit maintenance scans," said the voice of Cortana as John ran. "Whatever that... _gas thing_ used against you did a number on the outer layers of the armor. No systems were compromised, but you're definitely going to see some scraped paint."

The Spartan frowned. He didn't like the idea of a weaponized gas capable of bypassing his shields. The fact that the gas emanated from a colossal alien that shrugged off bullets to the head like nothing didn't make the situation any better.

It was then that John suddenly became aware of a faint shape hovering low in the sky. Curved and symmetrical, it certainly looked synthetic at this distance. John activated his helmet's zoom function and quickly found that the shape looked almost like a spade, what with the short tail sticking out from behind it. Twin streaks of orange trailed behind what looked like thrusters.

That was definitely a ship.

The dark gray, spade-shaped ship lowered itself into the distance, not too far from their current location. After seeing the direction in which he and his 'companion' were headed, John immediately realized that the ship must have been their destination.

"That ship's the target, isn't it?" Cortana asked after having figured it out. "Are you okay with following that thing into its territory?"

"No," John admitted. "But we don't have a choice. We're not equipped to handle those...things."

 _Things_. That was the only word he could truly use to describe them. The unrelenting creatures that walked into death to try and kill him. The soldiers with no fear.

He had neither the ammo nor the manpower to take on an army of those strange, slim and bulky beasts. _Especially_ if they had more heavy units like that gas giant.

The Spartan glanced at the acrobatic alien and silently made a note to ask about what exactly that thing had been- if they ever got past the language barrier.

After a minute of running, John found that he could hear a faint humming in the distance behind him. He spared a glance over his shoulder, quickly spotting a dark green vessel in the sky. His eyes narrowed. _A dropship_ , he thought. He turned to look back at the black and white alien.

"Hey!" he called, knowing full well the creature wouldn't understand him. It still responded to his voice, however, and looked back at him, its head swiveling to face the incoming dropship. The Master Chief turned around again, only to pause when he realized that the lone dropship was suddenly a lot less 'alone'. A second ship was rising from the rocky peaks somewhere behind it.

John's blood ran cold when a third ship rose into the air from among the peaks. Then a fourth. Followed by a fifth.

"Oh no," Cortana whispered.

The Chief's grip on his weapon tightened. Aerial search parties. Even if he could find hiding areas, John knew that reaching their objective while trying to avoid air support would be difficult, especially during day. And, if the position of the local star told him anything, it was that he had a lot of daylight left.

John turned back to his alien companion. Its horned head snapped between the various dropships. The Spartan could tell the alien was agitated by their presence.

"John, _look ou_ \- "

Cortana's warning was cut off when John felt a horrid feeling swell in his chest. An unseen force lifted him from his feet, forcibly spreading his arms to the sides in the process. The Master Chief gasped, the air being forced from his lungs by an invisible fist enclosing around them. His world lurched, and, for lack of a better description, he suddenly wasn't where he once was.

The scenery changed, and his alien companion was suddenly nowhere to be found. John dropped back to his feet, everything around him suddenly replaced with an entirely new backdrop as an overpowering wave of nausea overtook him.

And then he realized he was surrounded.

The moment John's brain could register the fact that he had a dozen aliens pointing their weapons at him, something powerful crashed into his back. His shields simply ceased to exist, and a resulting explosion knocked him forward and onto the ground. The impact jarred him, and he could feel his pulverized body groan in protest as the taste of copper soured his mouth.

His vision went blurry for a moment, and he could faintly hear the sound of Cortana's alarmed cry, right before something brutally smashed into his side, sending him rolling across the sand. Now on his side, John quickly attempted to get to his feet. Despite being weakened by the lack of air in his lungs, the ringing in his ears, the pain, and disoriented by his blurred vision, John still moved with superhuman speed. But it wasn't fast enough.

Something heavy pressed against John's chest, forcing him back down to the ground with a painful shove. The idea of standing up flew out the window when the weight increased tenfold. Warning signals blared across John's HUD as his unshielded armor bore the strain of whatever it was that had fallen on him.

His vision began clearing, and John realized the thing pressing down on him was an armored boot. One which belonged to another massive alien. John's eyes focused on two, golden glowing orbs that stared back down at him. The titanic alien wore armor that looked nearly identical to that of the smaller, green-clad aliens. Except this one had white armor smeared with gray patterns. It also looked like it had nearly double the bulk of the other aliens.

The creature heaved a massive weapon at John, its smoking barrel leveling with his head. The Spartan's mind raced. At point blank range with no shielding, that weapon could easily kill him. The diameter of the barrel did little to ease John's worry. The projectile fired by that thing must have been huge.

The massive alien standing on him garbled something in its native language. John, understanding nothing, remained silent. His analytical mind, however, worked overtime. He noted his surroundings, his position, the alien's position- anything that could help him get out from under the creature.

A scheme had begun to form in his mind, but was cut short when a wave of crimson lightning passed over him and the group of aliens. John felt nothing more than a strange tingle, but the aliens, including the one crushing him, convulsed violently. The beast standing on him shifted its weight to its hind leg, lifting some of the pressure from the Spartan's body. A part of John wondered why he hadn't been affected by the lightning, but the battle-hardened warrior in him refused to let the opportunity to escape go to waste.

With the alien's weapon no longer pointed at his head, John shoved with all his might, unbalancing the massive alien just enough to slip out from under it. The Master Chief rolled away from the enemy soldier, jumping to his feet. His head snapped up just in time to see the black and white alien from before leaping over rocks and ledges to reach him.

John moved forward, sliding between the still-stunned aliens that had surrounded him only moments ago. The Spartan's otherworldly companion landed in front oh him and moved forward, reaching out with boney, techno-organic fingers. John tensed in alarm when red lightning built up around the alien. The creature stopped right in front of him, but only for a moment. In that moment, however, it reached out and touched him, and John suddenly felt a wave of energy wash over him.

Except, it felt _good_.

"John?" Cortana asked in alarm. "Are you feeling alright?"

"What is this?" John mumbled. The question went unanswered when the alien hurriedly yanked him as it began to run. The Spartan began his following sprint again, only for his eyes to widen when his legs moved faster than what was possible for him- even as a _Spartan_ of all things.

The electric alien in front of him moved with similarly fast movements. Red lightning trailed behind it, and John found that his own limbs left similar streaks when he moved them.

"Cortana, monitor my vitals as best as you can," John warned, just in case these movements overexerted his body.

"Already on it," the AI replied, though her tone of voice mad it clear that she was still mystified by the new development.

The alien up ahead glanced back at John. It paused for only a moment before making wild hand motions toward him. The message was clear: _hurry up_. As if to motivate him further, the alien pointed to the skies behind the Spartan. A dreaded feeling rose up within the Master Chief as he recalled the rapidly multiplying drop ships from earlier.

Risking a look over his shoulder, John almost stopped dead in his tracks.

"Oh..." he whispered.

"...crap," Cortana finished.

The five vessels from earlier had called in backup. _Lots_ of backup.

~X~

 _Damn it!_

Things were going bad. From the moment the first Grineer dropship had appeared in the sky, Aras knew things were going to get harder. It only went downhill from there when a Grineer Commander had swapped places with Aras' armored companion, leaving the unfortunate warrior surrounded by a Grineer ambush team, coupled with a Bombard. A quick discharge of electricity stunned the fireteam, but only temporarily.

And then things _really_ started going wrong.

"Tenno," the Lotus warned grimly. "Mass amounts of troops are mobilizing from the Grineer base. This is the largest search party I've seen in a long time..."

They should have had more time. The Grineer were efficient, but the ones stationed here had _never_ responded this intensely. Mars simply wasn't valuable enough to warrant stationing of the Grineer's superior troops and commanders. A response this swift made it obvious that they did _not_ want the Tenno escaping with his cargo while implying that off-world Grineer had flown in to oversee the mining operations.

"Which begs the question, why do they want us so badly?" Aras mumbled from within the Orbiter. The landing craft had re-cloaked before moving to a new position to try and extract them. They would still need to lose their pursuers before boarding, though. That left the Volt Prime Warframe, along with the unnamed man, on foot to fend for themselves. "Is it because of me? Or because of _him_?"

"We can worry about that later," the Lotus informed him. "You need to get off the planet. _Now_. I'm calling in any local Tenno to assist you, but it will take time for the nearest group to reach us. They won't make it in time to stop the Grineer."

Aras gritted his teeth. His Volt Prime's energy was beginning to dwindle and the speed gained from his most recent electrical surge was disappearing. He had been far from topped off when he had been forced to start channeling its powers, and though he still had the high ammo supply of his Soma Prime and Vaykor Marelok, the Tenno knew that even he would eventually be overwhelmed. The goal, as with virtually every assignment, was to get out of there before that moment came.

Only now it was coming a lot faster than originally anticipated.

The hum of dropships had begun to steadily grow in volume. It had begun to turn into a roar, and the Tenno found himself checking over his shoulder periodically to ensure that his companion hadn't been shot down by snipers or fire from the dropships themselves. Satisfied that he was at least still alive, Aras continued his mad dash over the rocky and uneven surface of Mars. The extraction zone was still far from here; if his Liset were to touch down now, they'd be surrounded by the incoming Grineer ships while taking off.

"How long until backup can arrive?" Aras asked hopefully.

"Too long," the Lotus replied. "The nearest ones are mobilizing as fast as possible, but the estimated time window you have is too short."

Aras cursed under his breath. With a command through his transference signal, he willed his Warframe to deploy energy-restoring capsules out in the field. The one-time use pads dropped at the Volt Prime's feet, instantly firing a wave of energy into the Warframe, restoring portions of its sapped power.

"Tenno," the Lotus said after the third energy capsule was dropped. The grave tone in her voice instantly put Aras on alert. "My scanners are detecting two- "

The Lotus was cut off by waves of static that filled the Tenno's comms. Within his Orbiter, Aras' eyes widened as his guide ceased to be, replaced by the fatal calm of downed communications. "Lotus?" the Tenno asked. "Lotus?! Ordis, what happened to the communications?"

The question wasn't addressed over his Warframe's long-ranged communications. Instead, Aras' real body spoke out into his ship, where his voice could by heard by the AI that monitored the Orbiter.

"It would appear that the Grineer are jamming our devices," the AI, Ordis, replied worryingly. "Ordis will try to restore them, but this may take time."

 _Time_. Something they didn't have enough of. And the Grineer _knew_ this. They were pulling out all the stops to ensure they would get their prize back.

Aras landed on a high ledge and quickly glanced over his shoulder again. The Grineer ships had grown in number, and they were closing in as well. Aras could make out the forms of Grineer troops who knelt in the open doorways of the ships' side entrances. The Tenno's armored companion seemed to notice this as well, and after a quick look over his own shoulder, the man moved with renewed speed.

Satisfied, the Tenno turned back around and leapt forward. The entire process of checking behind him only took a split second, but in that split second, something had happened.

As Aras pumped his legs and leapt from the rock, he caught a flash of orange on the ground several meters below him. A cold feeling of dread spread through him at the sight of the familiar glow. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the Tenno twisted in mid air, turning to try and warn his companion of the imminent and very fatal danger that was quickly approaching him. A bolt of furious lightning shot from the Volt Prime's fingertip to try and intercept the orange blur, but the blur knew enough to remain cloaked to avoid being harmed by the blast.

The Tenno watched as his armored companion reacted, slowing his run when he saw the orange streaks. The man was bringing his rifle to bear, but it was already too late. The orange blur became solid flesh as a scrawny figure materialized midair. Lanky arms tipped with clawed fingers stretched out as if expecting a hug as the thing lunged for the unnamed man.

 _Oh no..._

* * *

 **A/N:** I'm allliiiiiveeee! Okay, really sorry about this guys. I took time off for the holidays to be with friends and family, and then every time I tried to sit down to write out the chapter, things kept happening that forced me to close the ole' laptop and get other stuff done. As for the chapter itself, I am experimenting with switching views between John and our new Tenno, Aras. Yes, yes, I know; it's a filthy OC, woe is me, un-favorite, un-follow, etc. Yeah, I know some original characters on this site have received some bad rep, but I will try my absolute best to make Aras as interesting as I can without taking too much focus off John (who is still the main protagonist here). That said, sorry again for the long wait and a chapter that does little more than set the scene for the next conflict. Chapter 4 will, hopefully, be a little more action-packed. Also, I started work on drafting chapters for other potential stories (I just didn't post it yet due to how long Ch 3 of Oversleep was already taking), but, in the future, I do plan on diving my time to work on those stories as well.

 **Review Responses –** I read all reviews, but I respond to those that seem like they are asking a legitimate question or bring up something that I'd like to address. If you stopped by and said something like 'good work' or 'good story', then know that, even if I don't directly respond to you below, you have my thanks!

 **minecraft93:** All in good time, my friend.

 **Lolitalna:** Yeah, I did a poor job of getting a point across regarding Grineer aim. I wanted to say that they were _reckless_ in that they fired knowing full well they could hit allies, not that they fired inaccurately. I edited that description in chapter 2.

 **Raiden312:** You were wrong on both accounts :P. Still, good guess! You're right about John likely needing a weapons upgrade, and that his armor is something of a wild card to the current Warframe universe. And the beauty of all those unique Warframe threats is what made this crossover so attractive to me in the first place! As for Cortana's reactivation, Syndicate reactions, and how they got to Mars...all in good time :)

 **razer666L:** That I am, my good man. Interesting calculations that guy has, I'll admit. While I don't agree with _everything_ he said, he brought up some pretty interesting points. At the very moment, I have had this gut feeling that an appropriate weight for a Grineer would hover around 3/4ths of a ton- heavier than a Spartan for sure, but not quite a full ton. Regarding strength, I wanna say Spartans have a slight advantage over certain Grineer units, but others, like those infuriating Shield Lancers and their dreaded backhand, have outrageous physical strength (what with being able to knock a speeding Volt flat on his back). Other than that, glad you enjoyed the read so far!

 **MysticBandit:** Mars is a low level world, for starters. The Grineer here are, in every way, inferior to the monsters you find at high level. That, and I plan to explain why John beat the Grineer in the cave with relative ease at some point soon. Regarding the Nox, the unit itself has crazy armor values, which makes it tough to kill, even at lower levels. However, its arctic shield is still technically a lower level Grineer shield, hence why the nade did the job in destroying it.

 **Guest:** Agreed that they are at least 3/4ths of a ton (in my opinion). I'm not sure if I'd say they pass the one ton mark, but I'd estimate they're close.

 **Anzer'ke:** Alright, I replied to your PM and explained my reasoning, but for the sake of future viewers with similar questions, I'll put a summary of my reply here. Yes, I know it looks like I'm nerfing the Grineer for John's sake here, but I do have a plan and a reason as to why these ones in the cave were so weak. Said plan will unfold soon. Now, early in Chapter 2, I talked about Grineer aim. This was my fault, as I worded it poorly. The idea I wanted to convey was that the Grineer fired recklessly, even if it put them in harm's way, what with bullets ricocheting around and hitting their allies. They didn't fire inaccurately. I edited the original Chapter 2 with an updated description of this scene. I also intentionally used low-level/weak Grineer against John in the cave to give him a chance to get the show started without being curbstomped, but I'm confident that high level Grineer would rip John apart if he didn't prepare and equip himself properly. The first part of Chapter 2 was me getting used to writing group fights, while the latter half involving the Nox put me in a comfort zone of sorts. And, as a side note, thanks again for the literary critiquing :)

 **A Grey Jedi:** Indeed, John would fare very well if he was given good gear. Until then, however, he's got only his UNSC guns and his armor.

 **Reaar:** Ha! As fun as that sounds, I do agree that it would eventually lose its flavor. Still, John's gotta meet one of the big Grineer on the block one day or another…

 **Prometheus-G747:** I haven't had this much fun with a review in a while! Excellent assessment of the Warframe; you were spot on! You caught quite literally every hint I dropped regarding the mystery frame. I imagine you can figure out what the mystery Grineer unit at the end there is gonna be with your eyes closed though. And I like your way of thinking! John certainly needs to meet the horrors of high level Grineer before he can truly learn to combat them *insert evil laugh here *****. Thanks for that funky review, it was certainly a high point in my day to read that one!

 **Cloudyvisage:** The author of _Storm of the Void_ has come to my humble story? Goodness me! Anyway, I'm not surprised that you prefer the professional approach. The tone in your story felt like it hinted at that. I'm shooting for a semi-professional feel with my Tenno, as they have a mix of serious and oddly humorous lines in the games. And I think its safe to say John is a big fish whose pond had just expanded into an ocean.

 **Me (Guest):** Rejoice for I have returned!...with a late chapter that is meant to set the scene for the following one. Back to the keyboard for me, I suppose!

 _Edits made on 9/14/18 to help differentiate between landing Craft and Orbiter._


	4. Chapter 4

Review Responses and **IMPORTANT** A/N at the bottom.

* * *

He saw it too late. Streaks of orange raced across the sandy red field, effortlessly dodging a surprise strike of lightning from the armored alien that had been his impromptu guide. John's instincts screamed at him, warning him of an approaching threat.

The Chef listened to those instincts and began bringing up his rifle, but the _thing_ that appeared in front of him outpaced him.

It was small and lanky, with long arms covered in a dark suit. Red, glowing orbs were one of the few details John saw before the alien crashed into him with impossible force. He only barely managed to keep a grip on his MA5D when the new enemy collided with him. Even so, the two crashed to the ground, John grunting when his back collided with the course sandy surface.

Distorted, howling laughter filled his ears as the alien pinned him to the ground. His shields vanished in the blink of an eye and he only faintly caught Cortana's surprised outburst before something struck his helmet – _hard_. John's head snapped to the side when the alien atop him hit him. Alarms blasted across his HUD. The Master Chief moved, his finger pressing down on the trigger of his rifle. The weapon fired.

The Spartan was certain that he had hit the alien – he had fired right at the mass pinning him down – but it showed no signs of stopping. A second strike, faster than he could block, hit the other side of his helmet. His head snapped to the other direction, and a _crack_ sounded off as his visor began to fail under the strain. Part of his HUD fizzled as a thin break spiderwebbed in the corner of his visor.

His finger slipped from the trigger during the brutal attack, and the moment he tried to jam the gun into his opponent's side, something forced the MA5D down. John jerked, failed to dislodge the weapon, and made the split-second decision to discard it. His hand shot up, narrowly avoiding a weight that attempted to press down on it. He brought up both arms to try and guard his head as the alien moved for another strike.

Its hand collided with his elbow, and John tried to force it aside. He used his other arm to block the creature's left-handed strike. He was rewarded with an eyeful of the alien's otherworldly helmet and the merciless, artificial orbs that gazed back.

The creature screamed down at him and snapped its head back. John's eyes widened when it brought its armored forehead down in one swift motion, bashing his own helmet.

The crack widened.

John heaved, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he tried to roll over. The aline vigorously resisted the motion, and he only managed to roll halfway, but it was enough for him. He forced the thing's foot off his weapon and grabbed it with a free hand. The moment he relinquished his grip on the alien's arm, it drove its clawed fingers down onto his shoulder plating. It tore hungrily at the armor, stopping only when John jammed the barrel of the UNSC service rifle into its side and pressed the trigger for all he was worth.

A stream of bullets tore into the creature's side, burrowing into the armor it wore. John found himself almost unsurprised when the thing didn't die. These aliens had proven monstrously resilient to conventional weapons.

Still, the beast sprang off him and flipped away, vanishing into the air. John caught sight of the black and gold alien he had been following in the split second of respite, noting with a pang of panic when he saw that it was grappling with a _second_ creature, identical to the thing that had attacked him.

Said thing reappeared several meters above him, let out a whooping laugh, and lunged down. The speed and reflexes of the Spartan combined with the augmentations of his armor saved him as he dove away. The alien crashed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust that washed over the rocks surrounding them. John's dive brought him into a kneeling position and he rapidly raised his weapon to try and fire burst, only to blink when his target vanished again.

"To your left!" Cortana hurriedly warned.

The Master Chief's keen eyes had already caught orange streaks racing across the sand as his enemy rapidly closed the distance between them. John braced himself to meet the approaching threat, his muscles tensing when his opponent materialized and attempted to tackle him.

 _Now!_

John ducked as the creature's lanky arms wrapped around the air where his head had been a moment earlier. Immediately, he drove his own body upwards, slamming into the extraterrestrial's stomach. He managed to get a grip on its sides, digging his fingers into armor that refused to bend beneath his strength.

The alien let out a shout when John threw it down. His intent had been to try and kill – or at least cripple – it once he had it pinned down, and rather than take risks with such a fast alien, he slammed it into the ground with his grip maintained throughout the whole motion. The Spartan used his impressive weight to force the thing down, violently pushing it into the sand.

The enemy soldier thrashed furiously beneath John's grip for a moment before it cloaked. Then, suddenly, it wasn't beneath him. The Spartan's body abruptly sank to the ground when the soldier he had been pinning down simply wasn't there anymore. Almost immediately, the alien reappeared in front of John, swinging a leg at his unprotected head.

John backpedaled frantically to avoid the incoming attack, managing to put himself out of harms way. Then the alien vanished again.

 _Right!_

He whirled around when a dark shape reappeared to his side.

Gone.

Something crashed into his back. The Master Chief grunted in frustration and pain when the alien knocked him forward. He landed on his stomach but rapidly rolled away to avoid an armored boot that had been aimed at his head.

John ended up on his feet, swinging his rifle up to face the enemy. He paused for only a fraction of a second when the thing suddenly convulsed while familiar lightning danced around its shivering body. His opponent momentarily stunned, John did what his instincts screamed at him to do.

He pointed the barrel of his gun at the alien and pulled the trigger. He put several rounds into the creature's center of mass, the force of which knocked it flat on its back. Behind it, John saw his own companion kneeling next to another convulsing body. The black and gold alien had one hand planted firmly on its victim's head while the other was pointed at the hostile John had been shooting. Both limbs sparked with ferocious electricity.

Spartan and armored alien exchanged looks before both their heads snapped up in unity at the roar of an incoming aircraft. The squadrons of bulbous dropships had closed the distance between them in the time that they had spent fighting off the twin aliens.

John's ally reacted fast. In a blaze of ethereal red, it launched itself forward, closing the distance between itself and the Spartan near instantly. It tapped him on the shoulder, and a surge of energy coursed through the Master Chief.

The sensation felt otherworldly to an indescribable extent, and yet...it felt empowering. The Spartan's body moved on its own, training and a seasoned soldier's intuition kicking in as he raced after the electric alien. The dropships' roar, however, didn't let up. They were still close, and John could even catch the occasional shout or order hollered over the growl of industrial machinery.

The alien ahead of him threw hurried glances over its shoulder, sometimes at John, sometimes as the sky. The Master Chief couldn't see the alien's face, but from its jerky movements, he caught the telltale signs of a cornered soldier. Their situation had long since gone critically fubar. The enemy had air superiority, the numbers advantage, and nightmarish units to deploy.

And John was running out of ammo.

A familiar sound – the groan of a mechanical weapon – thundered somewhere behind him. Abruptly, a storm of glowing hot projectiles rained down around the Spartan and his companion. Both warriors dodged vigorously as the enemy carpeted the ground with holes. A wave of sand and dust rose from the planet's tormented surface to meet John in the wake of the bullets.

The pattern of the shots brought a new realization to mind, however.

 _They're trying to split us up_ , the soldier realized as he dodged more bullets. The deadly gunfire was spaced between him and the alien, and the enemy was doing a dangerously effective job of herding him away from his guide. The Spartan grunted and zigzagged to try and keep up with his quarry. The boost from the alien's lightning was gone, and the drop in speed was noticeable, but the Master Chief pressed on.

His view became rapidly obscured by the growing clouds of dust and pebbles kicked up by the aerial fire. The clouds eventually cleared for a minute when the gunner of the ship paused – either to reload or because the gun jammed, John didn't know.

And it was in that moment that the alien abruptly whirled around. Its speed tripled in a split second in a burst of electrical energy.

The black and gold lifeform closed the distance between them instantly, tapping John on the shoulder as it passed and hurriedly ushering him to follow. When John saw the enemy ship attempt to halt itself, he understood what the alien was doing.

 _Perfect. The ship can't turn as fast as we can. We've got a breather, but for what?_

The ship that had been on their tail was arcing across the sky in a return run. Meanwhile, to their left, the other dropships were closing in. The Spartan and the alien were moving perpendicularly to the ships' paths, and it would take the craft a second to adjust.

And it was at those moments that a spade-shaped ship appeared in the air, practically right on top of them. The Master Chief's gaze snapped to the aircraft, eyes widening when he recognized the alien ship from earlier.

 _Interesting stealth mechanic. Could have been useful on Halo...and on a lot of other places._

The ship pulled ahead of them and slowed down, lowering itself closer to the cracked, rocky ground. The deceleration of the ship, coupled with its lowered altitude clued the seasoned veteran on what the plan must have been.

"No way we're getting of here without being seen," John observed. The problem lied partially in the fact that while the ship could go invisible, he couldn't. He'd be seen boarding, and extracting danger-close without actually _seeing_ your extraction point would have been near suicide.

No, the ship would have to uncloak, they'd have to board, and then re-cloak and retreat.

"One chance," Cortana vocalized. "Enemy vessels will be on top of us in less than thirty seconds."

"Noted."

The ship lowered in an elegant descent. Whoever the pilot was, he was doing a good job of keeping the craft steady. The acrobatic alien jumped, latching onto a bar located in an open compartment on the underside of the ship, towards the nose. The techno-organic warrior looked back at him and reached out a boney hand, palm open and fingers outstretched.

The Spartan didn't know if it would be able to hold his considerable weight, but he didn't have much time to ponder. There would be just enough space for him to grab onto the bar itself, if he jumped high enough.

John wasted no time in pumping every ounce of power he had into his legs to close the distance as fast as possible. He was almost at the jumping point, his mind preparing his body to make the leap.

And then things went wrong. Again.

The alien's head abruptly snapped up to look over John's shoulder. In that moment, a shrill howl of laughter echoed in his ears. John didn't need to turn around to figure out what was behind him. A red blip appeared on his motion tracker, and it was gaining on him with terrifying speed.

The alien on the ship retracted its arm and produced a pistol. With on arm locked firmly onto the handlebar of its vessel, it used the other to fire a rapid succession of shots. Sharp _cracks_ , accompanied by the flare of the gun's nozzle, signified the attempted counterattack.

There was a loud, warped grunt. The red blip momentarily faltered, but kept pressing on. The fact that only _one_ of the two horrors was chasing him wasn't lost on the Spartan.

 _Where's the other one?_

The alien friendly kept shooting, the hostile kept dodging, and the Spartan kept sprinting. The only thing that was stopping the maniacal alien from tackling him was the sharpshooting of the other extraterrestrial.

"Enemy aircraft closing in!" Cortana warned hurriedly.

He needed to get on that ship, _now_.

The jumping point was almost upon him. He just had to get himself a _little_ closer! The black and gold soldier had to pause when his magazine finally ran empty. It didn't bother to holster its pistol when it swapped to its electrical attacks, carpeting the area behind John with bolts of crackling lightning to try and halt the enemy's attempts at grabbing John.

 _Almost there!_

The alien fired lightning in rapid succession before swinging its legs up and digging its feet into the compartment. Whether magnetically or otherwise, its legs stuck to the ship, and it freed both arms. A bony, armored hand reached out to grab John while the other expended more lightning.

 _Now!_

The Master Chief planted his foot on a rock higher than its surroundings and jumped. Lightning arced past him to cut off their pursuer. John's armored fingers closed instantly when his palm made contact with the alien's techno-organic gauntlet. The concern of whether or not his companion could hold him up flew out the window: they had run out of time. The two soldiers' grips tightened, and John found his feet slowly lifting from the ground as the ship began to ascend.

His weight was being handled. A lucky break.

His grip on the alien remained strong, even when it lurched slightly due to the sudden addition of half a ton of Spartan. The ship began to climb upwards while John looked back down at the teleporting abomination chasing them. Crimson energy rushed to meet it whenever it uncloaked. The thing was quick, but the lightning was fast enough to keep up.

His motion sensor beeped.

John glanced up just in time to see a flash of orange fly from the face of a high rock when the beast materialized.

" _Contact!_ " the Spartan roared. Both he and the golden alien tried to react, but it was too late. The creature crashed into him, violently ripping apart both his shields and his grip on his key out of this nightmarish place.

Time slowed to a tormenting crawl as John watched the ship ascend into the sky without him. There had been one chance for him to get off this world, and it was now flying away. No way would the ship be able to extract him now.

Reality zoomed back into full speed when John and the enemy that had tackled him crashed through a rock. It shattered under their combined weight. The impact, even after softened by his armor, jarred the Master Chief as the vibration ran through his entire body.

They bounced off a second rock, the MJOLNIR armor taking the brunt of the impact again. His shields had long since failed under the strain and would refuse to recharge until he could give the battered generators a chance to recuperate.

The enemy, however, gave him no such chance.

They twirled through the air, the Spartan attempting to grapple with his assailant, only for his arms to close around thin air when the body he was fighting vanished. A moment later, he landed painfully on unforgiving ground.

John scrambled to his feet, the first thing greeting him being the twin speedsters. One crouched atop a rock while the other twitched uncontrollably beside it, both glaring at him. The Master Chief's instincts told him to attack, but when the two didn't attack _him_ , he understood what was happening.

The one crouched on the rock let out a low, daunting chuckle and straightened out. The increasingly loud whirr of mechanical engines filled John's ears, and he risked a look behind him.

The enemy dropships had caught up. They had been gaining ground the whole time the friendly ship had been decelerating to allow him to try and get on.

"End of the line," Cortana whispered.

John turned back to the twins. One chuckled, and then they both vanished, reappearing some distance away as the ships slowed down to circle John. Within moments, he was surrounded, a chorus of chugging engine and foreign voices greeting his ears.

Dozens of soldiers jumped from the ships, some gliding down on jet packs, others rappelling down sturdy ropes. John's grip on his weapon tightened. He wouldn't be able to fight his way through this. He could make a final stand and try to take down as many as he could, but would good would that do?

Ground troops of various sizes and forms approached him, weapons drawn and aimed at him. Many thundered something in their unearthly voices.

The Master Chief wondered what protocol would dictate. UNSC vessels had their instructions regarding capture at Covenant hands, but what should a Spartan-II do in the face of _these_ things? Captured or killed: either way, John's armor and weapons would likely be confiscated. The former scenario at least left him alive to try and reclaim those weapons.

The super soldier's mind then screeched to a complete halt at the sight of one of the troops that was walking towards him. The other units moved to give the armored figure space as he walked over. His stature and form were no different from many of his comrades, but that wasn't what held John's gaze. No, what caught his attention was the lack of a mask to cover the approaching stranger's face. The Spartan's breath caught in his throat, and he could hear Cortana's horrified gasp at the sight.

What approached John was no alien. There were no mandibles, no fangs, no scales, no inhuman features. What looked back at the Spartan was a pale, wrinkled face, with patches of dead skin and subliminal wiring running under the surface of the cheeks. A pair of intense red eyes stared at the MJOLNIR helmet's cracked, orange visor.

What looked back at John was no alien, but a _man_.

~X~

The cover to Aras' transference pod bloomed like a flower, releasing the occupant from his ancient seat. The child-like figure inside leaned forward, head planted in his arms, white hair brushing against pale fingertips. The Volt Prime Warframe, recently pulled from combat, stood dead still not far from him, the animated movements drained from its being the moment Aras terminated the link between himself and the armor.

"Manics," the Tenno sighed, a hint of frustration creeping into his voice as he rubbed his temples. "Since when did the Grineer station so many well-trained troops on Mars?"

Mars had been, historically, a place of easy pickings. It was entirely uncommon for the upper echelons of Grineer soldiers to be there, but today? Aras hadn't run across such tough clones in a long time. Had he known their resistance would be so fierce, he would have brought a stronger Warframe and stronger weapons. The soldiers present were powerful – far more powerful than either the Tenno or the Lotus had initially anticipated. Preliminary scans revealed nothing too far beyond the ordinary. More troops were present, of course, but they had been indicated as a low threat, likely not much stronger than the usual Mars detachment.

What the Tenno actually found, however, was light years ahead of the typical red planet patrols. Manics, Commanders, Elite Lancers, all thoroughly trained and outperforming their typical counterparts by exponential measurements. These kinds of troops were rare amongst the typical Grineer armed forces. They were prominent in their high value operations only.

But what had struck Aras as the most profound detail was just how much of those troops had been mobilized to stop the Tenno from escaping with the armored man. Grineer were excellent at moving many troops in record times, but dispatching air squadrons, manics, kill squads, and who knew what else like they had today? Something deeper was at play.

"Curious," mumbled the mechanical voice of the ship's AI. "Ordis hasn't seen this kind of mobilization of Grineer units in some time. Is the – _hunk of junk –_ artifact that they located truly so valuable?"

"Apparently," Aras mused, his ancient mind running over the details of the mission and its failure. "What did the Grineer use to interfere with the comms, though? Did the signal match anything we know?"

Off the top of his head, Aras could remember one particular group of Grinner that could wipe Tenno communications with relative ease.

"None that I can see," Ordis admitted. "The most logical conclusion would be the Grustrag Three, but this signal is...different. Ordis will work on fixing our connections and perhaps looking for future countermeasures against – _those stupid bags of –_ the Grineer."

The Tenno nodded and turned to look at Volt Prime. The frame wouldn't be enough to extract the armored man from the Grineer prison. He'd need something along the lines of a Limbo to keep the stranger safe. But then, the Grineer wanted this character _badly_. The Tenno wondered what other surprises might await them inside the Grineer stronghold.

"Operator, Ordis has managed to intercept encrypted Grineer messages amongst the radio chatter while studying the signals. I haven't been able to catch all the data packets, but one of them explicitly addresses Sargas Ruk."

Aras paused and glanced up. "I guess we shouldn't be surprised. He probably made the discovery."

"It...seems he's done more than that," Ordis said uneasily. "He has special interest in this project. These transmissions...Operator, Sargas Ruk is on _Mars_."

* * *

 **Important A/N:** Hey lads! Long time no see, huh? I'll keep this brief: in response to people mentioning my error on the Orbiter and landing craft differentiation, I read your comments and saw the issue. That was my bad. The previous chapter has received very minor edits to clarify the difference. Re-reading it isn't necessary, but know that Aras' Orbiter and Liset are now two different entities, and the Tenno's physical body with the Orbiter, not the Liset.

The second point I'd like to make is the reason for this hiatus. Since I've been enjoying the crap out of both RWBY and the crossover I'm writing for it, _Oversleep_ has been on the back burner for me. I'm not blind to the fact that there are quite a few of you who have followed this story (hence why I haven't forgotten it), but if you've ever tried writing one story while your mind keeps going to another, you might know how unsatisfying it feels at times. This story's not dead, but it will have slower updates compared to the other one. That said, thank you, everyone reading this, for your patience and understanding.

 **Review Responses –** I read all reviews, but I respond to those that seem like they are asking a legitimate question or bring up something that I'd like to address. If you stopped by and said something like 'good work' or 'good story', then know that, even if I don't directly respond to you below, you have my thanks! Also, sorry that this section is so long: quite a few reviews have accumulated during the hiatus.

 **Me:** The reason for the hiatus is in the author's note.

 **joshingblock:** I hear ya, but I do want to reply to people, and sending out mass PMs isn't very efficient. FF also tends to miscount the words on my documents. Not sure why. Glad to hear your thoughts about action; this chapter is just that, but the point is to lead up to the slower-paced future chapters on the Grineer holding site.

 **Anzer'ke:** While I don't want to bloat Aras' importance as a Tenno too much, I do want to use Ordis because he is one of my favorite characters in the Warframe universe, and because I don't want to pump _too_ many OC elements into the story. The error regarding dropships and the Orbiter has been explained in the A/N, and the reason for delayed Tenno help has been shortened to simple distance (very short edit in the previous chapter). Regarding Tenno bodies, that excerpt was removed due to the Liset/Orbiter correction. And yes, I have been using 'radio' rather loosely to refer to comms, and I took your suggestion into account and tried to make minor grammar edits to those terms. Same response on the adjective critique. You were certainly right about that (a re-read of the last chapter taught me so). As always, thank you for your continued feedback on not only the content, but on the presentation. Really does drive me to try and improve as a writer!

 **Guest:** Your point on the Orbiter/landing craft issue was addressed in the A/N. And yes, John's reaction to the Operators should be interesting.

 **Umaru the Unfeathered:** You're welcome! 1) I addressed this in the A/N. Sorry for the confusion. 2) That is true, but the Liset does uncloak to allow passengers to board or to deploy Archwings. They also leave behind traceable residue (either physical or energy-based), as indicated by radio chatter on the landing craft's Scanner. 3) Awesome! 4) Perhaps 'radio' wasn't the most spectacular word for me to use. It's more accurate to say (at least for this story), that the Grineer are using comms that Cortana doesn't recognize. It's a completely different technology used by a radically different faction.

 **Schwarz:** I will keep that in mind, thanks :)

 **Thermonuclear:** I see what you're saying. I'll definitely try to incorporate as much of Warframe as possible without crossing into its game designs portions.

 **Astrefernal:** Thank you for the offer! Funny you should mention John using a sidearm, because in this chapter, he was originally supposed to borrow a Tenno weapon, but the outcome ended up the same, so I cut it out and decided he'd use it on another occasion (especially since he's been captured now).

t **hor8797:** But would it work on Chief is the question. It works on Tenno and other agents, but I'm wondering if it will help a Spartan.

 **Prometheus-G747:** Your evil laugh is quite formidable! The landing craft/Orbiter thing was actually a mistake, and has been explained in the A/N. That was my bad *Minecraft death sound*. Also, are you quite alright, dear reader? The amount of brackets you used may have exceeded typical human capacity. The only cure is a new chapter, you say? Hmm, I think I have provided (even if it is short…)! Also, changing Aras' gender might give poor Master Chief a heart attack if he sees people transforming like that! The man already has so many problems to deal with, don't you think? Especially after being captured...Also, I don't actually own the Liset Prime skin (I've got the plebeian Prisma skin instead!), but do I at least get points for _trying_ to be fashionable? I think Prime versions are awesome, but I don't want to make Aras seem _too_ decked out. He's an above-average Tenno experience-wise, that's for sure (he's based off my account level), but he's not like the god-king of Tenno kind (basically, anyone who owned Excalibur Prime before Umbra came out). Ah, so many story questions, but answering them would be spoiling it, wouldn't it? Think of the story as a nice meal, and the details as dessert. Having the latter before the former spoils your appetite! But I _will_ give you some imaginary cookie points, since you asked so politely :P

 **Eltyr:** Not dead, but it is on a slow update schedule. Hope that makes up for it a bit.

 **razer666L:** Spot on with both observations! And yeah, John's taking a bit of a beating, but all in the name of plot progression.

 **AgentMaryland93:** Glad to hear you're enjoying the ride. Sorry about misspellings; I proofread as much as I can, but they're bound to slip through every once in a while.

 **A Fan Me:** Thank you for the kind wishes. I assure you, I'm in great health, and finally managed to put out a new chapter.

 **Gabe. d. clark. 1997:** That's actually a pretty interesting idea. We'll see where that might take us.

 **Jack the Sparrow:** And here it is!


End file.
